Local History Month - Banyule

Image: Heidelberg Shoeing Forge, 1900. YPRL in partnership with Heidelberg Historical Society

October is local history month.  While we cannot provide our usual annual program of speakers, walks and tours, you are invited to test your knowledge of your local area in this series of blog posts for Banyule, Nillumbik and Whittlesea residents and invite you to visit some lesser known websites and resources for your local history research.

Lost Trades Festival

Our Seniors Fesitval Program's theme this year is lost trades so be sure to check out what is happening including an online conversation with 6th Generation Cooper George Smithwick who will discuss his career in this lost and forgotten art  Thursday, 22 October. 3.00pm-4.00pm. Join via Microsoft teams.

Do you know? (answers at bottom of post)

1. What former Presbyterian Church is now a gallery and art space?  Name the Church and name the Organisation.
2. When was the Shire of Heidelberg proclaimed a City?
3. Where in the City of Banyule is there a link to the famous French Soldier Napoleon?
4. Over the years this building complex has been a training centre for Jesuit priests and later a training centre for social workers.  Where and what am I ?
5. A ward in the City of Banyule is named 'Ibbott'.  Who was it named for her and why was this person significant?

Walking Trails

You can explore so much of your neighbourhood, when it is by foot.  Enjoy these walking trails to learn more about your local history

Darebin Parklands - Alphington

If you already enjoy the walking trails at Darebin parklands, consider exploring the nearby streets of Alphington.  This recently developed local history project documents your choice of walking tour. Download the localised map and information.

Plenty River Trail 

The Plenty River Trail starts north of the Western Ring Road in Greensborough and ends far to the south, meeting the Yarra River Trail in Viewbank.  It passes several sites of post-European historical significance, including the remains of an early public swimming pool built into the river in Greensborough and a number of 100-150 year old fruit trees that mark the location of many orchards established in the late 1800s. In Lower Plenty, the trail crosses a historical bluestone bridge dating from the 1860s, one of the first bridges across the Plenty River to be built of its kind. (via https://www.banyule.vic.gov.au/)

Websites to Explore

WWII at Home: Response, Reflection and Rejuvenation

Digitally explore 18 sites of significance that represent the transformative impact World War II had on Victoria through response, reflection and rejuvenation including Heidelberg Military Hospital. 

Mont Park to Springthorpe

Explore the former Mont Park Hospital and Asylum and its environs, the heritage-listed buildings, horticulturally significant landscape design, social and cultural history, hospital and psychiatric care history, indigenous history, significant historical figures and interviews with people associated with the area in the past. Heitage walks have recently been added.

Read The Heidelberg Mirror: Olympic Village Souvenir

The Souvenir issue of The Heidelberg Mirror 15th November 1956 (published in East Kew, Victoria by Mirror Newspapers) commemorating the Melbourne Olympic Games has been digitised and can be read on our Flickr channel. Includes articles on the Olympic Village, Heidelberg Library and Montsalvat, Eltham, as well as display and classified advertisements for local businesses in the City of Heidelberg and wider area and business' associated with the construction of the Olympic Village in Heidelberg West.  The Melbourne Olympic Games were held 22 November - 8 December 1956.

Victorian Places

Search your favourite place here

Jigsaw Planet

Have you discovered YPRL's very own online jigsaws showcasing photos from our collection.  This can get addictive!

Answers

1. John Knox Presbyterian (later Uniting) Church at 8 Noel Street, Ivanhoe is now a gallery and art space for Ivanhoe Girl’s Grammar School
2. 1934
3. The Church at St Helena was built by the pioneer Major Anthony Beale, in memory of his wife Katherine.  Beale had been a pay master for the east India Company on the island of St Helena during Napolean’s imprisonment there.
4. Loyola College, Watsonia
5. Cr. Nellie Ibbott was the first woman to be elected to the Heidelberg Shire Council in 1928. She later became Mayor – making her the first female mayor in Victoria.

Want more?

Try this Quiz

Visit Local History Month Nillumbik  and Local History Month Whittlesea

#Askalibrarian and send us your questions via this form